Battle of Hartsville

Battle of Hartsville
Part of the American Civil War
Date December 7, 1862 (1862-12-07) Location Hartsville, Tennessee Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Absalom B. Moore (POW)	John Hunt Morgan
Units involved
XIV Corps
Strength
2,400	1,300
Casualties and losses
2,096	139
Hartsville Battlefield
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Show map of Tennessee Show map of the US
Nearest city	Hartsville, Tennessee
Area	245 acres (99 ha)
MPS	Tennessee Resources of the American Civil War MPS
NRHP Reference #	98001247
Added to NRHP	October 28, 1998

139

The Battle of Hartsville was fought on December 7, 1862, in northern Tennessee at the opening of the Stones River Campaign the American Civil War. Hartsville Battlefield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Stones River Campaign started in early November 1862 when Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans moved his Army of the Cumberland southeast from Nashville, Tennessee, toward Murfreesboro. Confederate General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Army of Tennessee, had retreated there after his defeat at the Battle of Perryville. Bragg ordered Colonel John Hunt Morgan to move north with his cavalry and operate along Rosecrans's lines of communications, to prevent him from foraging for supplies north of Nashville. The action at Hartsville, a crossing point on the Cumberland River about 40 miles upstream from Nashville, north of Murfreesboro, was an incident in Morgan's raid to the north, before Rosecrans had the bulk of his infantry forces on the move.

Guarding the river crossing at Hartsville was the 39th Brigade, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, consisting of the 106th Ohio Infantry, 108th Ohio Infantry, 104th Illinois Infantry, and 2nd Indiana Cavalry. The brigade was commanded by Col. Absalom B. Moore. Under the cover of darkness, Morgan crossed the river in the early morning of December 7, 1862, with about 1,300 men, mainly Kentuckians, outnumbered by about 1,000 troops by the Union brigade. Another Union force, three times that size, was encamped nine miles away at Castalian Springs, close enough to hear the guns, but too far away to take part.